“To praise him is to serve him, and fulfill,
    Doing and suffering, his unquestion’d will.”
        —­Cowper, Vol. i, p. 88.

EXCEPTION THIRD.

The participle is often used irregularly in English, as a substitute for the infinitive mood, to which it is sometimes equivalent without irregularity; as, “I saw him enter, or entering”—­Grant’s Lat.  Gram., p. 230.  “He is afraid of trying, or to try.”—­Ibid. Examples irregular:  “Sir, said I, if the case stands thus, ’tis dangerous drinking:”  i.e., to drink.—­Collier’s Tablet of Cebes.  “It will be but ill venturing thy soul upon that:”  i.e., to venture.—­Bunyan’s Law and Grace, p. 27. “Describing a past event as present, has a fine effect in language:”  i.e., to describe.—­Kames, El. of Crit., i, 93.  “In English likewise it deserves remarking:”  i.e., to be remarked.—­Harris’s Hermes, p. 232.  “Bishop Atterbury deserves being particularly mentioned:”  i.e., to be particularly mentioned.—­Blair’s Rhet., p. 291.  “This, however, is in effect no more than enjoying the sweet that predominates:”  i.e., to enjoy.—­Campbell’s Rhet., p. 43.

   “Habits are soon assum’d; but when we strive
    To strip them off, ’tis being flay’d alive.”—­Cowper, Vol. i, p. 44

EXCEPTION FOURTH.

An other frequent irregularity in the construction of participles, is the practice of treating them essentially as nouns, without taking from them the regimen and adjuncts of participles; as, “Your having been well educated will be a great recommendation.”—­W.  Allen’s Gram., p. 171.  (Better:  “Your excellent education”—­or, “That you have been well educated, will be,” &c.) “It arises from sublimity’s expressing grandeur in its highest degree.”—­Blair’s Rhet., p. 29.  “Concerning the separating by a circumstance, words intimately connected.”—­Kames, El. of Crit., Vol. ii, p. 104.  “As long as there is any hope of their keeping pace with them.”—­Literary Convention, p. 114.  “Which could only arise from his knowing the secrets of all hearts.”—­West’s Letters to a Young Lady, p. 180.  “But this again is talking quite at random.”—­Butler’s Analogy, p. 146.

   “My being here it is, that holds thee hence.”—­Shak.

    “Such, but by foils, the clearest lustre see,
    And deem aspersing others, praising thee.”—­Savage, to Walpole.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XX.